Posts Tagged ‘writing’

So You Want To Be A Writer

~ Charles Bukowski

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of yourheart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money orfame,
don’t do it.

if you’re doing it because you wantwomen in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there andrewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebodyelse,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out ofyou,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring andpretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.unless it comes out ofyour soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you isburning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,and if you have been chosen,
it will do it byitself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.